Date won't save in MYSQL

Hi everyone, hope someone can help...

I'm working on an app, one function of which is to store a list of gigs for a band. I'm using datebalks as my datepicker in a form in my app, then run the result through Chronic to convert the natural language date to datetime in a before_save def in my Gig model. This is working perfectly on my local development machine, but when I try to run it from my account hosted at Dreamhost it does not. I don't receive any errors, but 'NULL' is being saved in the Date column in my MYSQL table. The rest of the data saves correctly. I have tested Chronic from the console on Dreamhost and it works without a hitch, but I have tried several different methods of using it within my app, and it's like nothing at all happens.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Also, am I making this task more difficult than it needs to be? Is there an easier way of getting a natural language date from datebalks to save into MYSQL without something like Chronic? It seems to be like it should be a pretty common task, but I couldn't find any info anywhere.

Thanks in advance!